Cesc Fabregas has taken a dig at England for adopting a negative approach to their game at Wembley on Saturday.

By Subhankar Mondal

Spain international midfielder Cesc Fabregas has taken a dig at England for adopting a negative approach to their game at Wembley on Saturday.

The European and world champions slumped to a narrow 1-0 defeat in London in the friendly international between the two teams, thanks to a 49h minute goal from Frank Lampard.

England coach Fabio Capello fielded a defensive formation against Spain, who dominated the match but failed to find the target, although David Villa hit the post in the second half.

Fabregas, who came on as a half-time substitute, was understandably frustrated with the final outcome but insisted that it had more to do with England playing with 10 men behind the ball than anything else.

"At the end of the day, you want teams to have a go at you and test you and see what happens," explained the Barcelona star.

"We knew, especially after we saw the first XI that they put in, that they were going to defend basically the whole game.

"Even when they were winning, they had (Danny) Welbeck up front alone and everyone just defending.

"But this is the way they want to play and it worked for them."

Pleased

"We dominated the game and we made England defend nearly the whole 90 minutes," continued Fabregas.

"We played two completely different styles of football.

"The more defensive one won but we know that the only way they could score was from a free-kick or a corner and we conceded a not very intelligent free-kick there.

"We paid for it but, basically, we are happy because we played very well."

Poor results

The defeat continued Spain's disappointing results in friendlies against the major footballing nations since their World Cup triumph in South Africa in 2010, as they had earlier lost to Argentina, Portugal and Italy.

However, Fabregas dismissed suggestions that this is something to worry about and pointed out that La Furia Roja qualified for next summer's Euro 2012 finals with maximum points from their group.

"Nearly every team we've played now plays like that and we qualified with maximum points," said the 24-year-old.

"In friendlies, it's true that's sometimes we don't go with the same mentality as the important games.

"We always suffer a little bit more in friendly games and we change a lot of players and it's completely different.

"But we are trying our best and hopefully we will be ready for the Euros.

"You cannot even compare the situation today and an important game like the Euros."